Friday, January 14, 2011

Wivenhoe

As a follow-up to my post about the Abbott/Joyce call for more dams.

The Wivenhoe dam above Brisbane was built for the purpose of mitigating flood waters - that's why they talk about it being at 189% of "capacity" as it is designed to only temporarily house excessive water.

The LNP proposed that the dam level be increased earlier this year - that is reduce its capacity to hold the sudden inflows that otherwise become flood waters.

Yes you can build dams as flood mitigation - sometimes. But you can't build dams as flood mitigation but keep them full to use for agriculture.

Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est

1 comment:

Vic N said...

My Uncle, Jim Turnbull designed and built just about all the dams in southern Queensland, including the "Wivenhoe" (which he always called the "Ivanhoe") after the '74 floods, as well as the HInze dam on the Gold Coast, where he is memorialised....and he would absolutely agree with you. It was always meant to be flood mitigation......and the Qld Govt is similarly confused about what they want the dam to be for...